A mountain stood for a score of scores of scores of seasons. one day a young boy ventured to its foot, he looked up at it, and swore that he would become like that mountain.

when his parents herd what he had promised , they laughed,

“the mountain is a score of scores of scores, you are not yet two score seasons in your life, you will never be like the mountain”

so the boy was dejected, and for a time he forgot the mountain, but the mountain did not forget him. Every year on the night he had sworn to be like the mountain, he dreamed of the mountain, and of himself, becoming like it.

this went on until the boy was an old old man, he grew wizened, and frail, and he could no longer draw his bow. one day the son of his son came to him, in tears

“why do you weep?” the old man asked

and the boy replied, “I weep because i am not like the mountain”

and the man replied to the boy

“do you know the sound of wind over grass?”

and the boy said “yes”

“do you know the feeling of a rock in your shoes?”

and the boy said “yes”

then the old man said

“do you know the taste of the wind in your throat?”

and the boy said “yes”

then the old man said

“if you know all this, and nothing more you are a mountain, but if you know the time to lie down, the mountain, is you, for then you are more than a mountain”